The Reservice Takahina

Takahina will be going to Reservice for just 1 week from next week onwards. It's a low key and well it's my 3rd ICT.

It's not really a very prestigious or event to be anxious about. But just a few things I have in mind...

1. Camera HP.

So many camera HP don't know which one to bring to CAMP.

I'm in S2 branch (in charge of catching Camera HP), and I know that people bring in Camera HP all the time, just the mandate is do you get caught or not. But now the new mandate is in that Camera HP are allowed in certain areas of the camp, so what does that mean? Do we bring it or not? And where can we use it?

I know NS portal has stated everything about where you can have it and where not. But for reservice man like me, I don't really give a shit about that. Just bring your non-camera HP for contact purposes and you will not be caught.

However, I do understand why Camera HP are being allowed into camps and even if not why some people will still smuggle it in. Because Camera HP is now essential to us. Just switching from Micro sim card to a normal sim card that itself is a pain in the ass. Like this where can I call? I have an Iphone now, and I won't have any idea when I can make a phone call without worrying getting caught. I don't have a normal SIM card so does that mean I can't make a call anywhere? Shit man.

NOKIA 3310, the one phone the army should provide

I will need to call people regularly, and without a HP which I can use openly kinda means I'm fucked. So how?

2. Uniform

I get fat. And I mean real fast. My brother Tian Wei said I'm endomorph, which practically means I get fat from breathing air. FUCKING BREATHING AIR.

Air molecules add to my weight

So my Uniform, can't fit now. FUCK. Then I have to go all the way down to some Emart to get my uniform changed for the correct size etc and now there's this uniform change which I must do. So if I do not have time to go down and get my uniform changed I'm practically fucked.

Yeah, Fucked.

I do not know if my uniform fit, but I'm seriously hoping that my recent spate of exercising would have improved the situation even if by just a bit.

3. Staying out

Yeah I know when we go reservice it's almost a given that you stay in. Well is it always true? Why some of the Lao Jiaos that I asked say that they used to stay out and there's no point in staying in unless you need to wake up damn early the next day? Now I'm not married, I do not need to go back home everyday nor do I have work so important that I must clear everyday, but seriously, shouldn't it be our choice whether we can go back or not as long as we finish what we must do?

He is fucking Lao Jiao

When we get older, married and have kids, have work commitments etc, this becomes even more obvious that we should be allowed to go home as long as we finish our NS training for that day, yes?

4. Preparation

To be honest I'm very ill-prepared for the upcoming re-service. Maybe I'm getting too slack or what but it's like I seriously don't give a fuck about this upcoming re-service. And when I don't give a fuck I don't prepare. So I am fucking ill-prepared. I don't have a proper HP to use, I don't know if my uniform fits, I don't know what I must bring, I don't know what will my training program be etc. Seriously I don't know!

Yeah it's my fault for this. In the past when I was studying, I had all the time to prepare for ICT because it would be in the holiday times. But now I'm working, then imagine your ICT coming in at a period when you're still studying and lectures are going on, you seriously won't give a fuck man.

His mind is saying, "I should be studying my notes, not wayanging like this right now.

Ah, fuck this ICT. Don't know why some people say it's a good breather from everyday life. No, fuck this shit it's no breather, it's a fucking torture.

The Work Life Balancing Takahina

I'm taking out the format of "week **, title" for my blog.

Reason simple, because I can't blog every week anymore. Or more rather, blogging is sadly not my priority now. Work is.

I have a lot to report since my last blog, which was like almost a few months ago. I firstly revived my blog for the purpose to push myself to a continuous weekly blog but it only lasted for like a few months. Now that I have switched department to a much more busy department, finding the time and energy to blog is in itself difficult.

Quite long ago (which is like a few months), PM Lee mentioned of a Work-Life Balance Lifestyle.

Hey I'm not wearing Pink!

Well to be honest if you want to truly achieve it, it can be done; under a lot of determination and stamina that is. For the first few weeks when I switched, I could hardly get myself doing anything at all. I had to struggle with well.. myself, to get myself used to my commitment and the whole process of rescheduling and redirecting my energy to doing the things I have to do.

Furthermore, during that period of time I had my tuitions to handle. 3 of my students were entering into the final phase of their A lvl and they are simply eating up more of whatever is left of my energy.

Well USA has the SAT. How bout that?

Now, don't get me wrong. I don't dislike my current job at the new department, the people are nice and helpful and the mood is not tensed. I loved my tuition lessons and the interaction with my students. I used to think that people who don't do anything else but work are lazy and unmotivated. Well, I guess I don't have the rights to say them anymore cause I fell into that state once. For the few months to getting used to my new department I totally lost the motivation to do anything else, such as exercising, researching on my stocks and even to play game. All I do whole day after work is either accompany my girlfriend if not youtubing or facebooking. Those two I tell you are the ultimate time-wasters. I didn't have the motivation to plan anything, or do anything productive. I led a very mundane and boring life for that few months. It's only until recently that I starting to slowly getting back into pace.

That's when I realized this, what PM Lee was saying was actually not something that can be easily done. Because right from the start, there is no Work-Life Balance itself, this 2 things cannot be quantified or compared that easily. How are you going to measure them? The amount of time spent on each and see which takes up a bigger percentage?

I termed human in general going through several phases of their life. My thinkings have changed a bit since the last time and it could change again when I enter the next phrase of my own life.

If she's your baby then you know you're fucked.

1. 0-10 years old: The Shaping Up Phrase

You are basically wasting your life away, however during this time it's also the time when you absorb whatever is around you the most. Your character, personality, tendencies and hobbies are the ones being developed at this point of time. So whatever you are thinking right now, is probably the result of the influenced you had at this phrase. However when you are this young, you won't give a shit about anything. Because you don't have any opinions at all during this time. Your whole brain itself is still not developed.

That's also a reason why I don't like to deal with "people" at this age. Because they can't think, no matter what you tell them they won't understand the reason behind it fully. I still remembered trying to reason with my Pri 2 chinese kid telling them why is it so important for her to study. Boy was I wrong, there's no point in that at all!

So there's no 'balance' at all at this stage cause if the person can't even know why is the meaning of balance, there can be no balance. Balance have to be instilled by the parents and we know how are parents are.

STOMP is your friend when you need dumb pics. 

2. 11-16/17/18 years old: The Experiencing Phrase

This is the age when we slowly come out of that dazed mode in our infant years and start to think things through ourselves. We experience the different notions of emotions and get into our thinking of future bit by bit. They won't think too much in that though as it is still scary. Political view, religious views, ideas, emotions, love, character etc all this things will be fully crunched out at this time. That's also why they call it the rebellious times; because we will come out from being obedient to experiencing things ourselves, even if we know it's bad.

It could be argued that this is the most important time of our lives. Well there's no such thing as MOST important phrase. It's just that this stage would always feel special in our lives as our energy is endless and we would want to break every rule there is or to feel the acceptance in society.

At this time, there's no 'work'. Work is being termed as studying and it differs among people whether we will like our 'work' or not, depending on the outcome of 'The Shaping Up Phrase". However, there's plenty of time for life. After all this is the best time to get life, because life is the most interesting right now. So yes there will be balance, and it comes easily.

Who the fuck needs library when you have Mcdonalds!?

3. 19-23/24/25 years old: The Studying Phrase

We have matured, we have understood life and experienced things. We know what we want and we know the steps to it. Now its the time to learn the skills and knowledge needed to get there. And hence with our mature minds, studying comes almost naturally. It may not be just studying books or for your exams but you are studying skills now. Skill that you may or may not need for your future. Regardless you will need them, that's why you're studying now... voluntarily. Because you know you will need it and it can only do you good, no harm.

When I mean studying, it also means social skills, learning soft skills, understanding human relationships and how to leverage on them, be it in a positive or negative way. Hence this is also when things starts to slowly clear up and you begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel for your future or survival.

You may have already started work like Takahina at the age of 24, but even work now is learning. Because you will see that society itself is like a big classroom for people to study it. Nothing is for certain now but at least things would have shaped up slowly in the form that you would have liked. You may already start to begin a relationship with your partner in life, and even that is a learning experience, for things are now serious. You are not that fledging youngster still stuck in puppy love.

You are hungry now, you are desperate now. That's why you study life now, by working life.

Work should mostly takeover our life, at least in a positive sense. The yardstick of Work and Life would be more tilted towards Work, but not yet fully leaning to just Work. But.... it will get increasingly difficult to shape it back to the balance it used to be when you're just a teenager.

Yes, Office Lady is now officially a cosplay.

4. 24/25/26 - 35 years old: The Working Phrase

Imagine a role playing game. You are now at level 80, almost fully efficient at whatever you need to know through your years of grinding at school, workplace and house. You have the high level weapons and equipments you need in order to fight the final boss. You are confident that you can win and whatever enemies that is being thrown at you, you are more than sufficient to handle it alone.

However, you are not content with just finishing off the final boss. You want to explore the game more, you want to see is there anything else that you left behind, any more rare items or challenge bosses for you to seek, any more side quest left behind still unsolved. Yes you are now at a stage whereby you are bored.

You can complete the game easily but you are bored that things are gonna end just like this. You trained for 25 years, only to end the game like this? NO WAY! You want to make sure that you have unlocked every secret in the game before you fight the final boss.

It's just like real life. You are addicted to work just like how you would be addicted to role playing game. You have (or you think you have) the skills needed to go through life similarly to being high level in a RPG. You have the gadgets that you need and you have a partner with you in life just like how RPG we will always form groups. But you wonder how far you can go to achieve your goal. How successful in life you can go and is there more in life to explore? Are there more skills you can learn for your success? Are there more money and opportunities that you can obtain? Is your partner the best partner to go with you on the final phrase to the final boss?

Very often it is at this stage you would start to doubt yourself. Doubt yourself and asking yourself is this what you really want and what you really need or is there better choices out there to better your chances. And it's this doubt that makes you work even more. Work so much more in fact that the lever of Work and Life would always be tilting to work. The balance is gone at this point and its very understandable as once you pass this stage and saved your game, it will be the final boss. Life? What is that?! I need to work to see how far my chances are!

There will be no Work-Life Balance at all at this point, reason being our minds would be the one hindering us from it. Because of the doubt and questions we have, we cannot stop working towards what we want and exploring. Very often, you have to PUSH your mind to allow you to enjoy life and to experience life.

Uncle wants his Kopi Break.

5. 35 - 65 years old: The Settling Phrase

You have worked long enough. You have explore far enough. Now you are tired mentally and physically. You want to settle down. You finally decided to fight that final boss and felt that your current stats, level, equipments, partner is the best one. Even if there is more to explore, you find that you are getting too old for that. Time to end this, time to enjoy life now.

Yet during the period when you're enjoying life, you can't help but reminisce of the past when you're young, energetic and full of zest. You may try to restart your engine to rush again but eventually you will just stop it as gradually you will see no point. You feel sad, sad that your game is ending soon. The report card of life named Death will approach soon and you pray that you have done well in life. You pray that the game will have a good ending.

This years are filled with mixed feelings. As you want to enjoy life, you will find that life is not that enjoyable any more. What you want more is peace, that peace that will continue through until your funeral. However inner peace is more than often, unattainable. Thanks to the depressing feeling of death, regrets would start to overflow. You would have hoped that you worked and study more, hence you pin that knowledge and thinking onto your offspring who more than often can't be bothered with your nagging.

However, the thing is the game has already been fully explored by you. You have overwrote your save data and there's no turning back any more. Be it whether you have fully tried your best or not you will always have that lingering bitter feeling inside.

Work Life is already balanced. But even so you won't be happy.

Ah Po, Kua Simi?

6. 65 - death: The Dying Phrase

My choice of words are very direct. Face it, you're gonna die soon so might as well face it in it's full glory. All the diseases, illness, handicap is gonna attack you head on and you can only rely on your own power (coupled with medicines and healing magic such as 'surgery). You may die early, you may die late. But regardless the game will end and you're gonna die. Similar to playing "Slender", you're gonna die no matter what.

Don't Play this game unless you wanna scare yourself

But you face death, you will try to see glimpse of how well you score. However you can't see well anymore, you can't remember that young kid who always follows your son and calls you Grandpa. You can't hear well any more and the drum beats always seem to be going too slow or missing beats here and there. Hmmm, that's odd.

Then you would have understood at that point of time, when suddenly it all comes back to you, from when you're a baby all the way till what you are now. You finally comprehended this thing that there's no such thing as Work-Life Balance. They are essentially the same thing. You have to work to maintain life. And you spend more than 75% of your life on work itself. Aren't they the same thing then? You would have hoped that work would have been much better then.

The report card of life will be handed out without you knowing how well you have scored. People around you are gonna comment on your results, yet you can't say a word in protest. But hey, at least you managed to last this long. Life is not an easy game and for you to be able to work till this far is commendable by any cause.

Then in heaven, your partner will sit beside you and ask, "So, have you enjoyed your life?"

How would you answer then?

The Busy Busy Takahina, 2012 Week 33

Very sorry for not updating... and neither do I have much time to do any big updates. So this time it's just a quick info on what's happening to me lately.

Somehow maybe someone from my office really saw my blog (OMHFG), I got what I wished. I got transferred to a company which is the complete opposite of my previous department, it's so much more busy now I have no time to waste on the computer. Kinda ridiculous really as the change is really big. But somehow I'm feeling happy as this is much closer to what I expected in working in a bank. Also since the department is bigger, I have colleagues now who actually talk to me and it feels so much more welcomed.

So expect me to blog much lesser now. Sorry again. Since every post takes up a lot of my inspiration and energy and time, I have to wait till days when I'm more free before I can do any proper post.

Also, 2 of my bands have registered and auditioned for an up-coming gig event called JamFest organized by AMG. One band is Xylia, playing Top 40s while another is Marukyu playing Jpop. Results are not out yet so hopefully Marc can get us the results he promised ASAP.

Anyways, just a short update. Peace out.

Note: Since this post is just an update, I will not put it up on FB.

GETTT- Great Economics Tuition Teacher Takahina, 2012 Week 32

I would love to be in a class of his, not for him but for the school girls :p

Sure I'm nowhere as suave or as cool as him, but hey, I think maybe I teach better than him... well academically anyways.

As a few of my friends would have already known, I have been teaching tuition for a couple of years. I won't say I'm the most experienced one out there, neither have I been formally trained at all in teaching. In fact my first experience with teaching came when I gave a 1 tuition session with my cousin Ah Moi when she was in JC and that was the most awkward thing ever. You don't know how to treat her, as a student or as your cousin, and when you cousin gets serious you feel like "WTF is going on!?".

Thanks Lao Peng for the Fuck Up sign. Ah Moi won't like to see her face without makeup. :x

Gradually in University, I scolded Desmond on his flawed economic theories so much so he scores better than me. Then the best thing is all of these is irrelevant to him as he's doing a totally different trade.

Bugger scores better than me and yet doesn't thank me at all!?

Then again there is nothing wrong with him doing what he's doing, it's a proper job with very good business outlooks in the future. Maybe not now, but wait till when people are richer, he gains more contacts and he even has a chance to operate overseas, then there's where his business will get real lucrative.

Now, how does this relate to me teaching? Absolutely nothing... ok la a bit relation.

Something like what Desmond is doing, teaching is in a sense more like a 'self-employment'. You are your own boss, you find clients yourself, you find contacts yourself, you do everything yourself, there's no so-called system dictating your every move like in a job similar to my current contract with UOB. And to be frank, tuition teaching is quite lucrative as well.

I started teaching when I ended my perm-part time job at TNT as a data entry clerk. It was a fun place there, doing brainless typing and talking cock with the many foreign workers there. Trust me once you get to know them better they are actually real nice people.

They're all my ex-subordinates.

But I know I can't afford to type in TNT for until the end of my university. TNT takes away my whole evening to night and it always rendered me very tired to the extent I can't really study for my university. So I had no choice but to terminate it before I entered into the last few sems of my degree.

Then however, I realized I need income. Allowance from my parents were not enough, I need an extra source of income coming in. As a university student, it was the peak period when you have tons of outings happening with your friends and peers, it was also the time when the government would not subsidize this this, would not subsidize that thing, your parents refused to pay for this, refused to pay for that, it's the time when you have no freaking income at all. Studying in university gains you no $ and you spend the most during that period. I mean just a freaking plate of bee hoon can cause up to $2. WTH?!

You believe this shit cost $2+??

So I listened to people around me and finally decided to take up tuition teaching. Initially I was rather against the idea. I had a very good tuition teacher Miss Lee who passed away (god bless her), and she groomed me to be the scrutinizing person I had become today. So in my mind, teaching is not just for fun, it's a commitment to the student you're teaching.

Miss Lee gave me her everything when she teaches. She loved teaching and she enjoyed sharing her experiences with students. Normally when she teaches, she taught them from primary school all the way till end of secondary schools and she'll give advice to what the kid should study and the routes in which they should progress on which best suits their character, behavior and ideals. Of course she's a bit on the traditional side so normally students under her especially those with good results would end up being some sort of doctor or some Masters in Universities. Well very obviously I'm not there. :/

That's me on the right and the Master's on the left.

So thanks to her, my impression of tuition teaching got pushed up to a high level. Tuition teachers don't just teach, they impart life experiences and become friends with the student. I know not every tuition teacher does that much, but undoubtedly that became my impression of a so-called GTT aka Great Tuition Teacher.

Some fan-service is needed here.

Therefore, even though in the past before I even began working for TNT, people asked me to go teach. I refused. I lack the patience to teach kids who don't listen, I'm not that well verse in the subjects learned in primary school or secondary school and I didn't want to tarnish the image Miss Lee set for me. Eventually though, I gave in to money needs as I began to realize how good tuition can actually earn. So there you have it, my initial motive for teaching is $, that like totally ruined my image of Miss Lee already.

When I first started, I was thinking what can I teach. Well my Chinese is relatively quite good, I can teach primary school kids, I play drums and can read drum scores to a certain extent, so I can teach beginner drums, I'm a major in econs and I scored A for econs in my A lvls, that can be a good subject for me to teach too. Then you go to those websites and insert in your particulars and search for assignments. All of them want experience, all of them want good teachers. So it boils down again to the very basic problem:

"NO EXPERIENCE NO JOB, BUT NO JOB NO EXPERIENCE, HOW LIKE THAT?!"

So I resorted to what my girlfriend told me, "JUST APPLY, DON'T CARE!! MASS APPLY LIKE NO TOMORROW!"

Hokay. >_>

So I spent a freaking hour finding various tuition agencies and mass spamming my application to whatever Primary school chinese and JC econs, there was no drum assignment at all so screw that. After like almost a month, finally I got reply.

Primary 2 chinese, Indian Kid, Yishun.

You want me to learn Mandarin??????????

My eyes became like this. O_O

Even though I live in Tampines, I didn't mind the location because there's a direct bus there. But OMG Indian kid learn chinese. This family must be pro-government.

What was PAP thinking?
 

I'm pretty sure the government is aiming that at our Chinese families who are turning Bananas, but never mind....

I'm yellow outside but white inside.

The pay is low, but I couldn't complain. I was desperate. So I accepted the job not knowing what is to come.

She's an Indian Kid alright, not lucky for her, now all primary school chinese textbooks has Hanyu Pinyin in it, so she doesn't read from the chinese symbols, but from the hanyu pinyin... which imo is wrong. You learn chinese for the sake of knowing how to read Chinese, not English. Nevertheless I couldn't say much, just kept teaching. From my memories it's one of the most horrible teaching experience ever. I didn't know what contents to teach, all I could do was to every lesson get her to do Ting Xie, read the textbook endlessly and lecture her here and there. I'm supposed to be teaching chinese but 90% of the lesson was done in English. I felt miserable teaching her and I know very well it's not helping her at all.

Soon after, another assignment came in:

Urgent case, 2 months to A level, Economics H1. Choa Chu Kang.

This time, I'm appalled at the location. Damn, it will take like an hour plus to reach his house. But never mind, the pay was much much better than Indian Chinese Kid.

Thus forth, my official teaching life began. From then on my tuition progressed and as I gained more experience, I encounter different students with different problems and characteristics and how eventually it felt to me what being a tutor meant, on top of my original impression of tuition. Of course, I stopped teaching the Indian kid after half a year. No offense to her but I think she shouldn't be studying Chinese as her mother tongue, but her true mother tongue which is Tamil.

Some kids (as how we tutors address them to other tutors even if they are 17-18) are inquisitive, some are very quiet, some are very respectful and even to the extent of scared, some forgetful, some extremely demanding, some blur, some simply don't care. It ranges from a whole bunch of situation. But I always say something for every kid I teach in their first lesson,

"I'm not your teacher, neither am I officially qualified to be one, I didn't attend any course in NIE nor had any school teaching experience, nor did I set any questions paper before. In teaching economics, no one is a teacher, we are all learning what is going on right now. You may be able to ask or answer things that I can't explain or can't refute because that's the nature of social science. Nothing is 100%. So don't call me teacher, just call me by my name."

And up to this date, I don't remember my students really calling me teacher except for the Indian kid (she calls me Zhang Lao Shi) and one RJC kid who is super respectful to the extend he calls me Sir when in actual fact I'm just a Sergeant.

'Allo, Don't call me Sir, call me Sergeant, you freaking hell give me 20.

Throughout this few years, naturally there are setbacks and stuff, sometimes I'm late, sometimes I have to last minute cancel tuition, sometimes I feel tired but I can't stop, sometimes I run out of contents to teach but I must teach something, sometimes my tuition gets cancelled because the kid doesn't like my way of teaching, but ultimately I'm starting to feel a bit of that so-called fulfillment when you see your kid becoming proficient in the topic and improving for their subjects. The fulfillment when your teaching is showing results, that's an amazing feeling.

I often get questions from other tutors, "Wow you teach JC students? OMG!" or "How do you teach econs? It's so difficult to teach!"or "Why some of your students can score so well while some can't?" or "Why don't you try teaching University level economics?"

For the 1st question, actually it's a no brain-er. Because I will ONLY teach econs and only JC has econs. I only teach econs reason is simple. I'm an econs major, so my econs knowledge are sufficient enough to teach the JC kids. Additionally my econs knowledge are fresh because I'm a fresh grad, just out from university. Plus I love econs and I scored well for it in my A's, so it will be easier for me to convince parents to let me teach and secondly, I won't feel bored like I did when I taught chinese because I love it.

For the 2nd and 3rd question, it's more complicated. To me, Econs is not a subject like maths or science. Sure they call it social SCIENCE, but there's a core difference behind it. Economics is never 100%, not like maths formulas. You want to score well for econs, you got to understand economics and that's how I teach econs. I go beyond the syllabus when needed, I teach contents in a way some may call "Kopitiam Talk". Because I believe teaching Econs lay-men is the best way for students to understand it and "Kopitiam Talk" could get a bit unruly at times. I talk to you, you have to talk back to me and we keep shooting each other economically. That's "Kopitiam Talk", I learned it from my dad and practiced it with Desmond.

My pa, Ph.D in Kopitiam Kong Wei

That's why for some people it's so difficult to teach, because the understanding has to be deep. You have to understand how everything you learn in econs can gradually link to one another, you have to know how to think beyond the context; not everything you answer in econs are in your notes.

A sign of showing you are an economist or think like one is when you can link many things in reality to economics.You learn how to scrutinize things and learn how to fully analyze information thrown to you. When you talk, when you look at things, you look at it from another point of view unconsciously. I have one student whom speaks in a different manner as compared to when I first taught him, it's amazing in the change I see in him and scary as well cause he's speaking in a manner quite similar to mine. O_O; And the best thing all those things he said, made sense, especially economic sense. When you have reached a level like this, there's nothing to worry about the economics content, what would be worrying is his exams skill of interpreting the question, how to answer them and understanding what the question meant. Some students on the other hand, just don't make have that change, I guess it boils down to character and personalities to determine how much they will change.

Economics is not a subject to be spoon-fed, it's a subject to be understood and some kids got so-used to the spoon fed secondary school system it's difficult to switch. Their understanding will always be limited and scoring A's will be difficult for them.

Why don't I teach university level? Simply put I'm not qualified enough. The knowledge and concepts I know may not be sufficient to teach university level even if I have already graduated. Hence I don't teach them.

Some tutors are in it for the money. Undeniably I started out with that thought as well, but I'm teaching econs not maths, so I can't teach econs in a totally systematic manner, that's just not logical with econs for me. So some students won't be able to adapt to the way I teach cause it could get a bit disorganized, and for that I have lost a couple of tuition assignments.

Regardless, I'm still teaching now and I will finish teaching my current students until they finish their A's or until they do not want me. It's just simple business and commitment. I did contemplate whether or not I should pursue teaching economics or being a full time tutor as my job, but I chose otherwise. :/

Ultimately, I don't think I could teach with great knowledge and responsibility like the Great Tutor Miss Lee, or I don't have the charisma that GTO has. However, I teach with my own principle and that's what I believe both the non-fictional Miss Lee and fictional GTO has, and that makes me my own GETTT.

So for you students or parents who don't like my style of teaching, you can kiss my....

Ok la no la kidding only, I still want your business. Relac ok? relac...

The Job-Hating Takahina, 2012 Week 31

Never thought I'll say this, but I guess it's official.

I Officially Hate My Job.

Yes.

Even though there are tons of perks in it, there's also tons of shit in it. To be fair, I'll name out the perks.

1. Near to my house, it's just 10mins walk away.
2. Low volume of customers, meaning very free and very low stress level.
3. Easy job to handle. The few things you have to manage regularly are relatively easy.
4. It's a 'respectable' local bank, so it looks good on the resume.

Now, the shit.

1. Everyone is free, meaning people will be blabbering their big bad mouth.
2. Low level entry job, meaning no one gives you any form of proper respect.
3. Being a local Chinese bank, the systems runs in a very "hierarchy" system. Everything must go through a lot of red tape and the bosses are as stingy as a Chinese salesman.

I give you best discount, 50c discount. You can't get it anywhere else.

4. Pay is low, note point 3.
5. Everyone pretends, even my supervisor.
6. Lack of proper training. You go through on-job training, but ultimately you only know things related in your own job scope. Nothing else. So essentially you're not gonna know anything of use for ur future job.
7. You feel dispensable. Anytime people can just replace you and your supervisor won't protect you even though they said they will. Note pt 5.
8. You feel too free, but you can't do your own stuff cause people are "watching" you. If they spot you, they'll just report you, even though you have done your job already. So ultimately you have to act busy. Something which I absolutely hate.

Let me rant, initially I was very excited about the job. Finally I can be like a working adult full of responsibilities and performing them. Emails come in asking me and I can confidently answer them about it. But that's far beyond what is happening right now. Let me just state it right from the start.

I searched for a job fast even before my last exams because I don't want to waste time. I know I'm a person with high inertia; you get me started I can keep going, you let me cool down my engine don't expect me to start anytime soon. So I got my job shortly after my exams finished. I sacrificed holiday trips and many other events just to make it for the interviews and stuff, in the process upsetting quite a few people I can imagine, but nonetheless I made my choice.

Then this interview at Tampines came in via Recruit Express. To me I didn't mind a low pay at that time cause I was desperate. Plus this job is just 10 mins walk away! Just imagine the amount of transport I can save up. It'll be comparable to a 2.5k job which is standard for most fresh grads. I accepted the job, went through a whole bunch of things in preparation for it.

Got to know that this job is about Options. Just nice, I learned options in University, something that I can use my expertise on.

So I started work. First few week is what they call a honeymoon period. You practically do nothing, just waiting the whole day. You try to study the procedures and everything but reading is not as efficient as doing it. You try to understand the product, which I did eventually. You know margin, you know the systems behind it, you learn the history.

At this point I was, "Well it's not too bad. People are quite friendly here and the mood is relaxed. Looks like I'll like it here." Plus I see my supervisor so busy all the damn time so I felt that once I'm qualified, I'll be almost as busy as him with a bit of free time available, which is just nice for me as I needed some time to do my own organizing and planning for my own life.

Go play some games, you'll get more lives.

 But gradually, after a month or 2. It felt different already. I find a lot of accusations towards me even though I have done my job. I find myself doing a lot of mundane stuff which is not necessary for the operations of the job. I find myself getting looked upon by people even though they say things until it's so nice and act friendly in front of you. I find myself worried about my own job position when there's a new staff coming in. The insecurity and the lack of value in my own work, made me feel that this job is no better than just a student job.

At the same time, thanks to my job coming from Recruit Express, what they told me initially was this job will be contract at first like a probation period, after that you'll be recruited in. What I didn't know is that I'm literally a "temp-staff". Under my email, it writes "non-staff". Any company updates doesn't go to me, it has to be forwarded to me via my supervisor.

Eh... isn't it supposed to be just probation period? How come I'm now like a temp-staff? Due to my status being "non-staff", I can't access to a lot of systems, meaning I can't value-add to my supervisor. He'll be looking around for more "proper" staff eventually.

Gradually a few days later he asked if I'm willing to continue to work in the company after I finish my contract, "Woon Han, I want to know how you feel, in that I don't want to continue looking around for more staff cause I'm tired of labour turnover and retraining them. Would you still want to continue in this position?"

Then I said, "I thought I'm supposed to continue unless you guys don't want me?"

Meaning... no. I'm not supposed to continue. If I want to I have to re-apply again and go through the whole bullshit process.

Haha you suck big time!

Then from there I started to know how lowly paid I am and how "dis-benefitted" I am. Kinda sucks to hear that you're colleagues earn around $600-$700 more than you doing the same shit job.Thanks hor Recruit Express.

Next, working in Settlement (back end) means that you're a cost. The company does not treat you kindly or the same as with those front end. Because you cost them their profits. Being a stingy Chinese Bank, they do not update their systems even though it's centuries outdated. Anytime they will cut you up and transfer the department overseas for cheaper cost. I mean working in back-end itself means that you're dispensable. Plus the job I'm doing has low volume of customers, added to the fact that I'm a non-staff and just a fresh grad and also the youngest in the whole back-end department, I'm the MOST DISPENSABLE OUT OF THE DISPENSABLE.

I'M THE MOST FREAKING DISPENSABLE PERSON IN MY BANK!

I should have a cameo role in this show.

No wonder I'm treated with almost no respect, people don't really care about what I do, hold no true responsibilities (meaning the job I do can be easily substituted) and the back-end department being relatively quite free, anytime I can get reported for skiving on the job. Oh yes I'm skiving by blogging bout you jerk-asses.

Recently my conduct got worse, I guess you can say my engine has slowed down. My conduct is not on the ball, I go to work late, take extended breaks, can't help but doze off a bit while staring into space when using computer etc. However I have to support 1 thing, no matter how much I 'skive', my work always get completed on time without me needing to do OT. That shows something.

I'm a capable person and I can spend all ounce of my strength to get things done. Ask my Uni Project mates and they know how I can rush a whole night, completing one rough diamond to a good cut.

My subordinates call me da boss for a reason.

The way I do stuff is not like the conventional Singapore sometimes. The more rush something is, the more I take it in my stride to finish it, kinda like how artists and Manga-ka (manga drawers) works. You rush them, they will seemingly appear uncaring, but then next day you see the work done. I try to keep my cool when doing stuff and don't appear nervous although sometimes I do lose my cool.

To me, it doesn't matter how you do your job, as long as you manage to finish it properly, and that's what I do for my work. My 'conducts' doesn't really matter because I have ALREADY finished my job. Yet rumors still fly around like no ones business about my poor conduct. Fine, UOB.

PLEASE GIVE ME MORE FUCKING JOB THEN! MAKE ME SO EFFING BUSY THERE WON'T BE TIME FOR YOU TO EVEN COMPLAIN ABOUT MY CONDUCT!

I dozed off in office, because simply, there's nothing to do. And when I do doze off it's not because I intentionally want to sleep, but I can't help it. It's too BORING. And wait here's more... it's not just me!

There are others who do nothing as well whole day in the office. Openly activate Pinball and play like no one's business. Yet no one complains about him. Why? Because he's an IT support tech and he's of a somewhat senior position. So what is the between me and him?

He's indispensable cause of his IT knowledge while I'm expendables like a temp-staff that's why. I'm like freaking Arnold 杀死那个.

The Singaporeans call me 杀死那个 for a reason.

 People don't respect me here even if I do my job well. I slack as much as everyone around but I'm the only one who gets the complain. Why? I'm expendable that's why!

My department in Tampines overall only got 2 person, my supervisor and me. When my supervisor is out teaching staff in the other branch at Tanjong Pagar, I'm the only one left alone, settling my own meals. Lonely I tell you lonely.

I'm a kon and I'm lonely. So I sing a song with chipmunks voice despite being black and badass.

Initially I decided that I'll continue on the job until end of 2013 provided that I get a suitable pay-rise to the level comparable to everyone and I become known as a proper Settlement Officer, not some "non-staff" bullshit. Fucking hell if I'm a non-staff why the fuck am I still in the company for? If I don't get those condition, I won't continue.

Now I'm thinking, even if they give me those conditions, I don't want to stay anymore. I didn't sign up for a shit job.

I didn't sign up for this fuckery.

And I dare to write all of this shit here, because I have no friends in FB or anything and they won't find it, neither would they care. I can tell you none of them up till now still knows how to spell my name correctly. "Choon Won Han" MY ASS! 

The Takahinian Olympics, 2012 Week 30

As most of you guys know, Takahina has never been one to write about sports and stuff. I mean, Takahina was never a very sporty person and you guys know it. That's also the other reason why Takahina is fat, but that's besides the point.

But then Olympics... hmmm well you can't say that I'm totally not interested in sports. At least I have played several of them but excelled at none. I mainly watch soccer, but for Olympics I watch several items due to influence from my father. I watch sports like Badminton, Diving, Table Tennis, Gymnastics and 100 meters Men's. I watch soccer too, but only when there's Arsenal or Arsenal players or I've bet on it.

Thanks for ruining your own fan-base Van Pu**y, where your Arsenal Bros now?

Now if you noticed, the sports that I've watched other than 100 meters Men's, the rest are dominated by 1 frigging country.

China.

Sorry Manluo, can't resist myself when I mention China.

I was wondering why as I watched what I watched and pondered, why is it that I hear the Chinese National Anthem all the time? Well partly because my father loves China and he knows more about China news than Singapore news thanks to Starhub Cable TV Phoenix Channel.

It's like Anime to Otaku, for uncles.

And since I have to kinda watch whatever Olympic events that he watches, I kinda grew up watching these events. I don't totally know all of them and how all of them work, but I just like can kinda appreciate them. Note, I'm not a BTSS (Bian Tai Shu Shu) just because I watch gymnastics. It's my father, not me. If you want to, call me a BTKK (Bian Tai Kor Kor) instead.

Now personally I have never been interested playing any of these sports except for Badminton. I tried Table Tennis and the balls just hates me, it flies around like nobody's business. Diving is out as all I can do is an atom bomb into the pool, doing Gymnastics will break the equipments, 100 meters men will end up like rolling for me. Lastly, I have stated before, I only watch soccer, and I only watch ARSENAL. So yeah, sports wise I suck, big time.

Regardless though, I still know certain aspects of the game and I know China deserves their gold medals. It bewilders me in why China can do so well in these sports and why other countries can't. You have the same training time, you have the same, if not better resources. Then why can't these countries win over China? Is it simply because China has a big population of 1.2 billion? Then India should be close to getting number 2 or 3, but normally it's USA. So in a sense, size of a country only matters to a certain extent. There must be a reason why 2 countries always dominate Olympics, China and USA.

Fear the freaking Panda goddamn it!!!

Now, let's look at things from a few prospective; Geographical, mentality, environment, biological and economical.

Firstly, if the country is like Antarctica, you can bet your ass they will never do good in beach volleyball. I mean the people will freeze to death. So in certain places, certain sports are definitely out. But then again for the summer Olympics, most of the sports are well do-able under room conditions, such as table tennis or badminton. So again there's no excuse for Egypt for example to suck in swimming.

However some countries do get a slight advantage. Ever wonder why countries like Kenya are able to produce very excellent runners? I've seen on Discovery once that certain countries have higher altitude. This makes the air up there thinner hence more difficult to run. For runners that live in these countries, they are faced with such conditions and are naturally trained in a more difficult environment. It's similar to how Lee in Naruto always fix himself to weights and stuff. He's already very good with them, you take out these "disadvantages", they become superb and shit happens.

That's what happens when you Kek Sai for too long.

So yes, where you live makes a difference ultimately. No doubt slight, but it still does.

Next, mentality.

What kind of mentality does sportsman have? To be frank I have no frigging idea cause I'm in no ways a sportsman. But I kinda have an idea that you will push yourself beyond your own pain for that eternal glory kinda thingy. Its like me running 2.4km for IPPT. Few seconds left and I'm free from the pain of RT. So I'll freaking push myself to the state of even vomiting just to escape the time wasting RT. Take that kinda mentality magnify it by 10000000000x and there you get Olympics.

Then you look at the mentality of China. These people get scouted since young and leave their family for their country's glory. They sacrifice more than half of their prime years learning and mastering just this one sport in Olympics. It's no wonder China can get so much gold medals. Just read the many stories and lifes of China's sportsman, I mean you won't get a praise from the country unless you get world no.1. What kind of sadistic mentality are they setting, dictatorship?

 Ahhhh Keng only keng only.


You don't get recognition for being anything other than no.1. You sacrifice a whole bunch of your youth away and you get nothing but just 1 skill of that sports. After you get old? What happens? Country doesn't want you and throw you away? With that 1 skill of yours it would not be enough to survive in society. It's no wonder they leave China for other countries like Singapore where they become rich but strangely looked down upon by the locals. Hmmmmmm...

They got it wrong, I should play in the men's, not women's.

This kind of all or nothing mentality not only gets them going, it forces them to go. Naturally they'll get no.1. So mentality understandable plays a big part.

Ok, then what about the environment you invest your sports in? Good training area? Good facilities? Clean toilets, very important by the way. Good facilities are definitely important, but to what extent? Singapore have very good training facilities for people, but our sports suck while some poorer countries without the so-called state-of-the-art equipments can still get number 1. So definitely environment is only good for up to a certain extent.

I could have placed more disgusting photos but that will harm my viewership.

The biological aspect of sports is getting hazy. In the past, Russian rules gymnastics, South America in most types of balls, the black Americans and Africans getting running gold, USA and Angmoh for swimming and diving and the chinese dominating badminton and table tennis. But now... it's a different ball game. Everyone seems to be winning something they don't seem to win in the past. Although some things still don't change like you see all Jamaicans winning the sprinting and USA conquering the swimming, but you see upstarts from other countries, notably China's Sun Yang huge win in the swimming. And now Chinese and Japan starting to show power in gymnastics, volleyball etc. Just look at the recent scorings and you can see the demographic changing. But I doubt this changes much.

I believe in the end, some "borned" advantages looms amongst athletics. Just look at the running competition it's always some black dude (RACIST~!!~) getting tops. It's amazing actually. This got me thinking that maybe if Singapore wanna win some athletics tops, we should get our bangla to start running.

MLMLWM

Last but not least, economically... which I believe makes no difference into achieving greatness in sports. How rich or how poor a country is not an excuse for anyone to be a great sportsman. Yes I agree in life, when situation handles you with money issues, you are unable to commit to being a sportsman and to represent your country, train and win medals. But then again, what's the whole thing about being a sportsman? As corny as it sounds, I believe that if you are out to be a sportsman, its to excel in your trade, to push for the highest level possible. Competitions are only an instrument to push out that excellence in a faster accelerated manner.

In the end, its still possible for people to become wonderful sportsman, regardless whether you're in the Olympics or not. There's so many differences in this world it's almost impossible to make any contest a "fair" contest at all. Ultimately, the biggest competition is inside you and that's what I believe every sportsman should believe in.

 By the way, I'm serious PAP, banglas have more means other than throwing rubbish.

The "Degree-Holding" Takahina, 2012 Week 29

As you guys all know, Takahina will be graduating soon. The official date is out to be on 22nd August. That's when I'll wear the gown and all, throw my hat as if it's chicken nuggets when extra curry sauce is known to cost 30cents more.

ORD lo!!

From what I know, after the few months you finished your last exams, people in the graduation ceremony will now be asking around like, "hey watcha doing?" etc, as if it's some Chinese New Year celebration when you're trying to break the very awkward ice between your friends and you. Well, I know some of my friends are already doing something, some found jobs, some found dogs, some found god. Some of them are also still slacking around finding a suitable job for them, I wish all of them good luck.

The queer thing however is that, I found some of my lecture mates doing sales in exactly the same place I work at. Sales, as in not selling insurance, but more like attracting or prospecting potential customers to deposit some money with us.

Don't get me wrong though, there's totally NOTHING WRONG with doing that. It's an honest job and frankly speaking a very difficult one. If you can get pass the initial hardship, you would be able to rise up and progress really well in life. Just that I felt this weird feeling that is that job the job they have wanted?

To be frank I'm not exactly working in a job I want to do now but it's all part of the plan for me to progress on to what I really want. But how about the many people around me? You study so hard for 3 years, in the end only to end up in something that as long as you have a basic diploma and good looks you can score, then what's the point of studying for the degree?

This is the misguided feeling I get when some people are studying and in the end working for something which doesn't require that education. Sure enough it's related, sure enough it has very very good prospects, then what's the degree for?

Being out in the "wild" now, I have a slight understanding of what a degree is. It's like a Poke Ball, you need it to catch new pokemons, before you can train them. So without a degree, you won't be able to get a job... kinda like a safety net or sorts. Next, the level of degree you have dictates the max rank you can rise in the company. For some weird ass reasons, degree becomes a gauge for employers to know what is your learning  capabilities. It's taken that the higher level your degree is, the more you're able to take over complicated stuff and higher level responsibility, hence if you're looking for a long term career prospects you better get a relatively good degree.

Dontcha feel like caressing it??...

Of course it's not saying that experience is not important, but it seems to be the norm now that if you don't have a degree you can't survive in Singapore. You use to hear all those stories like Bill Gates and Thomas Edison, drop outs from universities, schools etc became millionaire at their field of trade. Well, how high of a chance do you think you can do it like them? Now to be on a more realistic side, we all should not strive to be someone like them, being able to achieve success without tertiary education, I mean the chances of us being like Steve Jobs is almost 0%. We should at least get 1 degree, if not life would be difficult to proceed. Then after that whatever job you wanna do or apply is up to you, I mean you could have studied Masters in Economics and still go out sell Chicken Rice, to whichever rocks your socks I guess. Then what for study that much in the 3-4 years of getting that degree?

The sad thing in society right now is that degrees have ended up to be some sort of an insurance for us. It's no longer an instrument for us to learn things and we can apply it in our field of trade and it stems from 2 big factors.

Firstly, the difficulty of getting jobs. We have jobs we want to do, for example I want to be an analyst analyzing economic situations and how it will affect the economy. But then such jobs are far and few in between, so in the end I just ended up in somewhere that I can ply my services and knowledge into. A Bank. And being in a bank how much do I utilize my knowledge of econs and finance? Econs totally 0, finance at least still a bit, more on the accounting side. Is my degree useful in this sense? Yes, useful for me landing the job but not totally useful for me to understand the operations in this job.

Secondly, the realistic nature of working in jobs. You think you know everything and you just graduated, a proud and optimistic graduate ready to challenge the world. You enter into your first job that you obtained with relative ease, only to realized whatever you learn in University has no use at all. Is my degree useful in this sense? Again, YES.... for landing the job. That's all.

So as I said, degree mainly, is only worth for 2 things when you want to talk about it helping you in your career aspects, to grant you that interview with your future employer and to dictate how high you can climb in your corporate firm.

Why is it that career aspects are being held back by the level of degree and not experience? Look at the big shots around you and you'll realized those always getting headhunted or transfers around from here to there are normally people with either very high net worth (meaning able to garner a huge amount of sales), or they have those degree or certificates like CFA.

Now just by having those certificates aren't enough, you need to have experience as well. In this case though, experience would have long be gotten, the thing is how far you can go.

So you only have a basic degree, you can slog for years in this firm doing the same old shit but what is going to happen? At most you're just going to rise into being a vice president for a department or section that's all. And that's after like 10+ years of experience.

The ridiculous thing then would be those of higher position would be either head hunted from other companies, or not they have some satki certificates like CFA or Masters. It's kinda like telling you unless you get a Masters, your maximum pay per month is at most $5000 that's all. You wanna go more than that, get a freaking CFA or Masters.

Then look back at things, we from university after 3-4 years get our first bachelor degree. If we want to do Masters we have to sacrifice at least 2 more years being students and at least 2 years worth of education fee gone. After everything is done, then we'll come out to the world, experience-less but full of satki degree.

Now here's the unfair part. Most of us aren't rich enough to do so. My peers all around me finish bachelor degree would never think of going to Masters. And we go out into the workforce and slog, at the end of the day max pay $5000 per month, that is assuming we don't go into sales.

For Masters, they need to have the money from their family to support additional 2 years more worth of education/food/shelter etc. Which parents would plan for their kid right from the start to study a Masters? Seldom. Because the opportunity cost of affording for Masters is way too high for most families to support. Well if the family is somewhat better off, after realizing the kid's potential they can push for Masters, but most middle-class family would never think so.

Then when the Master's holders get into society, they earn close to $10000 or more max. In otherwords, they have broken the threshold to get into the high earners portion, something that for normal people, we could only get via very diligent sales.

So if you are able to sacrifice 2 years and you're in a well to do family, congrats you have just got into the top 25% of the rat race.

I'm going to study Masters, Bitches, YOU SUCK!! Hehehe...

Unfair? You betcha. The whole issue of the rich gets richer will keep going on and on. Income Equality is only but a dream if you talk about it. And sadly that's how society (at least Singapore) works.

So just know 1 thing people, if you're rich, go and get more education, if not you just be an ASK (ah sia kia) and wait for money to fall onto your plates.

My father owns Kopitiam and I'm gonna make KOPI for all of ya BITCHES!

For people who aren't rich, if you do not have the capabilities to accept the opportunity cost for going after a Master, don't go for it. You have to freaking farm your way up and attempt ways to get promotions, recognized, big certs like CFA. If not go do investments, or business or anything that can get you out of the rat rice. Hmmmm, where have we heard that before?

Ultimately, I'm digressing but I can't stress the importance of a degree or at least a good dependable diploma/cert. I used to believe that anyhow getting a degree and not using that knowledge is useless, but it's changing a bit now.

Society has deemed it necessary for any proper Singaporean who wants to so call progress huge in life to have a degree, be it you like it or not. Because a degree now, is an insurance. If you don't have it, chances are life is gonna be real real difficult for you in the future. So if you don't like any of the courses you see offered in university? Hate some more cause you're gonna need to spend additional 4 years studying that thing you hate or risk more years .

Life is a bitch. If you're rich maybe you're on top of that bitch. If you're not then you're in the a**hole of that bitch, filled with shit and knee deep in it. So suck up all the shit and climb up from the anus to the top of the head to be rich.